Wigtown
is situated on the western shore of Wigtown Bay whence the
name, from the Scandinavian vik, bay. It is built on an eminence
around a spacious central area laid out in walks. The town
hall stands at a corner of this square, and at the opposite
side are two crosses, one of 1738 and the other commemorating
Waterloo. Some fishing is carried on.

In
the old churchyard were buried Margaret MacLachian, a widow
aged 63, and Margaret Wilsop, a girl of 18, two covenanting
martyrs who were tied to stakes in the sands of Wigtown Bay
and drowned by the rising waters (1685), to whose memory,
as well as that of three men who were hanged at the same time
without trial, an obelisk surmounted by an urn was erected
in 1858 on the top of Windy Hill, outside the town. Wigtown
was made a royal burgh in 1469.